Thursday, 6 November 2025

Paraguay Day 14; Concepcion & Estancia Arrecife

   For our final morning in the Concepcion area we birded a patch of forest just north of the national park. On paper the satellite the site looked interesting, but in reality the birding was quite slow, with limited activity and mostly common species on offer. The best birds we were able to find were a Fuscous Flycatcher and our first Falvescent Warbler of the trip.

  We returned mid-morning to our hotel, since at around midday we would meet with our guide and the team for the next few days, where we would travel north to the Estancia Arrecife, a site home to the last Hyacinth Macaws in all of Paraguay. At 13:00 we met up and then drove the four hours north. The first stretch of the road was all on the highway, with the last 50 kilometres passing along a dirt road of excellent condition that went through some incredible looking forest habitat.

  It was a shame that it was not possible to bird along the road, but even in passing we had some nice sightings with our first White-eared Puffbird and Black-throated Saltator of the trip. The undoubted highlight however was a pair of Nine-banded Armadillos that were fighting in the middle of the road, before one took refuge under our car!

  Once we arrived at the Estancia we had to change a tyre on the other teams car, but we had some light to do a little birding. We added Red-legged Seriema to our trip list, and had excellent views of Nanday Parakeets sat on the roadside fences. The amount of cattle was quite staggering, but the rare birds here continue in the expanses of forest that infringe onto the land.

Tomorrow we will begin our exploration of the area. 

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